[News] Red Hat's CEO on Lock-in Awareness, Rise of Free Software

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Lack of IT knowledge begets 'lock-in'

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| We're more around the low-40 percentage mark right now. It's a goal--I think
| we'll get there. Asia contributes 17 percent of our revenues. We feel good
| about that, and it continues to grow nicely.
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| In Asia, there is a real public policy benefit to using open source. A lot of
| software intellectual property (IP) resides in the United States, so paying
| for IP from outside the U.S. means dollars flowing out of other countries.
| Because open source is fundamentally cheaper, there is less dollar flow.
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| And there is also knowledge transfer when countries embrace open source.
| That's why governments in the region are getting excited about open source.
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| Will open source software gain more business due to the current economic
| crunch? While in Australia this month, Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst appeared to
| say so. Yet open source isn't necessarily less costly at all than proprietary
| alternatives, some analysts suggest.
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| The VAR Guy thought Red Hat Exchange — an online store the software company
| launched last year — would be an overnight hit. It wasn’t. But after some
| tinkering, Red Hat Exchange (RHX) seems to be taking off — and giving
| partners like MySQL and Zimbra a lift as well. In fact, the site’s bookings
| doubled in Red Hat’s most recent quarter, The VAR Guy has learned. Here’s how
| Red Hat got RHX on track.
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Red Hat CEO: From the economic rubble, open source will emerge stronger

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| In August Red Hat posted second quarter revenue 29 percent higher than the
| same quarter a year ago, while its subscription revenue also enjoyed
| double-digit growth to beat analysts’ estimates. Whitehurst said that while
| predictions of a recession will likely mean fewer new projects, the economic
| benefits of going open source are already encouraging proprietary customers
| to switch.
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| In this candid interview with ZDNet.com.au, Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst
| discusses why he thinks rival VMWare will fail, how the financial crisis will
| be good for open source, and why cloud computing will be the future.
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